Margin

Our bakery is small. Our name: The Tiny Kitchen, is not an under- or overstatement. We are tiny. Even though we’re small, we want to be mighty. Mighty here means that every choice made needs to be sincere, needs to be thoughtful, and needs to provide the most impact that we can manage. A very large part of our choice is where our flour comes from. A bakery wouldn’t be without flour. The flour could be the cheapest possible, it could gluten-free, it could be all white, all whole grain, all ground on site. We are proud of the flour we choose to use.

The majority of our flour comes from Cairnspring Mills in Burlington. This mill was opened in 2016 as a sister mill to Camas Country Mill in Eugene, Oregon. Camas Country was the first regional mill to operate in the PNW in 80 years when it opened in 2011. At the time, most of the grain grown in the PNW was shipped out of the country. Camas changed that, causing a ripple effect across the USA. With resources and encouragement from The Bread Lab in Burlington, local grain is once again farmed, milled and used in bakeries throughout the PNW and across the country.

This resurgence of local grain, of a local grain economy, is allowing farmers to get the most from their farmland. Rather than their crops being lost amongst tons of grain from who-knows-where, getting commodity prices affected by fickle market variables, they are closer to earning a sustainable living. These farmers are not just growing grain in the dry-farmed areas of eastern Washington, but also in the Skagit Valley, on the Olympic Penninsula, and even in the San Juan Islands. The grain that’s being harvested has a story, a story of the people growing it, the people who pluck nuisance wild rye by hand, who plant by drilling into the soil to avoid erosion, who have strict guidelines to protect the precious top soil, who don’t use harmful chemicals, people with families, multi-generational farms, trying to grow sincere food. These are the people we work to support.

When you buy our scones, you’re enjoying the labor of Moon Family Farm in Horse Heaven, Washington. This flour is milled at Cairnspring and is our flour for scones and all things pie. When you eat most of the cookies we make, you’re experiencing Edison all-purpose, grown by Washington Bulb Company, and others, in the Skagit Valley. Early on, the Bread Lab worked with Skagit growers, encouraging them to plant this grain in that field fallow from bulb or potato rotation. If it worked, they’d get “people food” prices rather than “animal food” prices for that year. It worked. Our whole grain shortbread? That grain is grown and milled by Bluebird Grain Farms in Winthrop. Our bread uses Cairnspring flour, but we augment with whole grain from Moon Family Farm that we grind here, and with flour from Chimacum Valley Grainery on the Penninsula. Our products are delicious because we start with flour that has flavor, flour that has natural, specific baking qualities, flour that has a story.

We have always held that the food we produce should nourish everyone involved. We choose ingredients that are usually more expensive because we want folks to earn a living wage, whether flour from the Skagit Valley or chocolate from South America. Small farms and small producer coops give better access for us to know where our dollars are going. We choose organic eggs, butter and sugars. We know the vanilla we use is responsibly sourced. As a Cottage Food Operation, we don’t spend much on rent so that’s a savings we pass onto our customers. This year we may need to tweak some offerings, use a little less chocolate, not bring those brownies quite so often, work to not over produce on any given week, make adjustments to avoid price changes for as long as possible. We could earn more profit if we cheapened things up, but margins are not as important to us than the marginalized. People should be paid for the work they do, for the goods they produce. We are proud to support farmers, to bring their hard work to your table.

At the start of our fourth year with this Covid-pivot version of The Tiny Kitchen, we don’t know what the future holds. We don’t know how the farmers markets will go. We don’t know if you’ll be able to show up. We do know we will continue to do our part to support local growers and millers with our Tiny Kitchen. Thank you for your support, your smiles, conversations and kudos. We are lucky indeed.